Arriving in California as a young boy in the early 1960s, Edward Van Halen and his brother Alex were ripe for the coming musical revolution. The sons of a Dutch, saxophone-playing father, the brothers discovered the Beatles, Cream and others, and once Eddie switched from drums to guitar it started to become apparent where the future of both brothers lay.

From the moment their hugely influential 1978 debut landed, Van Halen set a high bar for the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, creating an entirely new style of post-'60s hard rock becoming the quintessential Californian band of the 1980s. But there was also an undercurrent of tragedy to their story, as Eddie's struggles played out in public, from his difficult relationship with the band's original singer, Dave Lee Roth, to the band's substance abuse problems, and from the break-up of his marriage to Valerie Bertinelli to his long-running battle with cancer.

With unique insights, Paul Brannigan's Eruption reaches beyond the boundaries of a conventional rock biography to explore the cultural, political, and social contexts that shaped an icon while turning up the volume on a life lived in the fast lane.